Jesse leads the college retention and completion efforts for the KIPP Texas – Houston region’s KIPP Through College department. Jesse is in his 3rd year at KIPP as the director of college persistence. It is Jesse’s responsibility to identify the high impact levers to drive KIPP’s matriculation, persistence and graduation outcomes as well as early career outcomes for KIPP alumni. As a part of this effort, Jesse cultivates and stewards relationships with senior administrators at colleges and universities with a sole focus on improving retention and graduation rates for KIPPsters at these institutions. Jesse comes to KIPP from Rice University where he served as the Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs and as an Associate in residence on the College leadership team. At Rice, he advised cohorts of students in applying leadership principles to decision making, taught leadership courses, and facilitated developmental workshops and programs around creating positive change. Jesse also led and assisted in special University projects over his tenure, most notably helping to lay the foundation for Rice’s first ever Multicultural Center on campus.